Undergraduate Specialisation Degree Courses – Yes or No?

Times of India (TOI) today featured a front page article on why market driven undergraduate specialisation courses are defunct and of minimal value to the students.

Three premier institutes for science and research in India, namely The National Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and Indian Academy of Sciences are of the view that courses in highly specialised subjects should not be allowed at school and undergraduate levels.

These institutes have written to HRD minister Kapil Sibal and recommended that these courses be scrapped.

Reason? Before taking up courses in such highly specialised streams the students must get their basics right and go through the drills of a composite B.Sc. course. Argument being that one cannot study biotechnology without a thorough understanding of biology and so on.

They explained that students are half baked cookies, with good knowledge of neither the basic sciences nor the specialised subjects. They also pointed out that these specialised courses are more expensive than plain B.Sc. courses.

The proposal has just been tabled and a final decision is awaited. However, even before the decision is made, some universities across the country have started re-designing their course cirricullums.

So far so good. However, dichotomy of perspectives always stand at cross-roads and presents a different view point. Agreed that such specialisation courses don’t render a student as excellent and top-brass professional in the field of scientific research. However, these courses render them industry ready and help them to land up in a decent job as a second / third rung professional.

We cannot hope to churn our science geniuses from one in every 100 individuals. If  plain B.Sc. course without any fancy tags attached, like Bioinformatics, Forensics, Biotechnology, IT and so on cannot assure a decent job to an individual then what does building a sound grounding of basic sciences provide to its takers?

The pattern of industry recruitment shows that students gradutating of such specialised courses secure a better demand in the industry than the ones who graduate with a composite B.Sc degree. The specialised courses will definitely not render a student well equipped to churn our scientific inventions and file patents, but it will definitely ensure him with a better job prospect in the industry.

While it is a novel dream to have more patents and more inventions in the field of cutting edge technology with an Indian tag attatched, it is also important to realise that nearly 30 percent of our total population is living below poverty line and there are nearly 300 million of unemployed youth. In these circumstances focussing on the cutting edge and over-the-top achievements cannot take prominence over fulfilling the necessities of employment avenues.

If you ask an unemployed he seeks employment. If you ask head of Indian Academy of Sciences and such institutes, they seek more patents and research papers. Neither are incorrect from their standpoint, albeit apart from the fact that both of them nurture a slightly narrower perspective . The trick here is, Kapil Sibal, as an union HRD minister cannot fall prey to individual perspectives as he has a much wider canvas to paint.

Academically a very sound suggestion, practically.. aahh.. I am afraid to say not so much.

You can also see what Reforming Education has to say about this particular issue.

About Reforming Education:
Reforming Education is a blog that focusses on the education sector and brings to the fore the plight of the system. It also pitches in to give it’s honest recommendations for the betterment of education sector in India.

Reforming Education is run by a team of keen observers of the education sector. The team also happen to work for the global education company, Aptech.

Decline of medicine as a career prospect

Medical and Paramedical career options.

For long it has been said about the nobility of medical profession. No other career offers its aspirants a chance to do an as noble deed as a medical career. Truly it is a noble profession.

Not too long ago, it dominated the priority lists of the undergraduates. The profession did not just offer a secure income to its aspirants, but a respected position in society as well. Getting their kids an admission secured in a medical field was a dream cherished by most of the parents, not too long ago.

However the scene is undergoing a rapid and drastic change. The sheen and the glitter which has long been associated with the medical profession is fading away fast. There are numerous questions one has to answer before trying to be rational.
Now does the noble intentions can be kept away from the professional aspirations of a medic?
Does the professions commands same respect in the present era?
Is there the same undying enthusiasm still alive in the hearts of the aspirants?
Are there the same number of takers ready to take it up as their profession?

With the IT boom sweeping across the country, With more and more liberalization being introduced in the market, with increased role of private sector in the scheme of things; other career options in IT and BPO sectors are becoming more lucrative.

Whats is the reason behind this change in attitude?
There has been a tremendous increase in the number of medical aspirants in the last few decades.

Drastic rise in registered medical practitioners from 59338 in 1950 to 410875 in 1992 and around 6,40,000 registered doctors today, comparable to the best in the world.
The number of medical colleges in India has grown from 25 in 1947 to 229 in 2005.
The national doctor/population ratio is 1:1916 (1992)
The rural doctor-population ratio happens to be a pathetic 1:25829.
Population with access to improved sanitation (%), 2000 is 28.
According to the most recent government data only 41,191 doctors were employed by all the different government agencies in the country and only 31,480 were in position in rural primary and community health centres. Hardly a drop in the ocean for India’s 72 per cent rural population!
All over rural areas in the country, there is an acute shortage of essential specialists — gynaecologists, paediatricians and surgeons. Around 40 per cent positions of specialists are vacant in public rural health centres.

So where do rural India seek health care from?
Private practitioners who do not possess a formal medical qualification or training — the ones whom the medical community calls `quacks’. However they are the ones who are accessible and available when needed, and provide to their patients a sense of dignity, continuity and community kinships.

This essentially implies that even though the number of medical practitioners in India has drastically increased, they are concentrated in the urbanized india, whereas the rual India is still neglected, depriving it of its basic health care.
This clearly underlines the fact that its not the nobility of the profession but the monetary gains the profession has to offer.
Why do rural and underprivileged urban areas have so few formally qualified providers?
Understandably, questions of livelihood are critical for all graduates, especially after struggling through five and a half years of an expensive medical education. The opportunity costs and social costs of working in rural areas are too high. For those who set up private practice, better off urban areas offer far better markets and facilities. The public sector is equipped to reach skilled and well-trained medical professionals in rural areas, but the hefty wage differential between the public and private sectors does little to attract the best professionals to the public sector.
Socially, a rural posting can be excruciatingly isolating and working conditions quite challenging for someone who has spent long years acquiring knowledge and skills in an urban medical institution. Doctors are extremely reluctant to be posted at PHCs for it is literally a professional dead end. There is a fear of sophisticated skills becoming rusty. Also a fear of an academic fade-out due to absence of the stimulating atmosphere that one finds in city hospitals and urban practice.
Other sore points are the unsatisfactory working conditions, lack of adequate staff and equipment and primitive living quarters.

Now, in the present scenario, even the urban density of the medical practitioners have increaded beyond leaps and bounds.
There is a stiff competition among the fellow medics. After all the Darwin’s theory of Survival of the fittest holds true and is evident on the neckbreak competition the medics have immersed themselves into.

With more and more IT industries taking over the market and BPO dominating the employment columns, students are naturally inclined towards it. Also the amount of inputs in terms of finance and time is lesser as compared to a medical career.
The fee structure and a four year IT course is more lucrative than a five and half year (including internship) MBBS at a steep fee structure. Above all considerations, the salaries now the fresh graduates are offered from these BPO and IT firms far exceed the average monthly income of a medical practitioner in India. The recent strike of the resident doctors and interns are testimonials to the meagre salary and pathetic facilities the medicos of our Country are provided with. Not to forget the battering they got on account of the lathi chage they had to bear in exchange for a peaceful protest. With the low salaries on offer in government institutions, the medicos rely upon the private practice system to make a decent living.
However, another important factor is the cost required to set up a private medical practice. And with the real estate prices shooting up, owning a clinic in the urban India is becoming a distant drream for the average middle class India.
In starking contrast in the high package an IT employees is offered and that too at zero investment.

To improve upon this alarming unsynchronisation, there must be some steps taken.
The goal of medical education needs to be synchronised with public health and not just with the career aspirations of students.
Of all professions, the medical profession is most inseparable from its social objectives. The first call of medical education must be to the health of the nation’s people.
For this the infrastructure governing the medical system in our country needs to re think on reimbursement service being meted out to its medicos, perhaps then, maybe, the old noble profession will take over and reinstate its position in the priority lists of the wanting to be successful Indian youth.

Have passion: Sudha Murthy

Have Passion!

It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies’ hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science.

I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India.

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.

At the bottom was a small line: “Lady candidates need not apply.”

I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination.

Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful.

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco’s management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco.

I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company’s chairman then). I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote.

“The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender.”

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco’s Pune facility at the company’s expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.

It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city.

To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco’s Pimpri office for the interview.

There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this was serious business.

“This is the girl who wrote to JRD,” I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realisation abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, “I hope this is only a technical interview.”

They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them.

Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, “Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories.”

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place.

I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, “But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories.”

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw “appro JRD”. Appro means “our” in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him.

I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, “Jeh (that’s what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate.

She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor.” JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it).

Thankfully, he didn’t. Instead, he remarked. “It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?”

“When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir,” I replied. “Now I am Sudha Murthy.” He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

“Young lady, why are you here?” he asked. “Office time is over.” I said, “Sir, I’m waiting for my husband to come and pick me up.” JRD said, “It is getting dark and there’s no one in the corridor. I’ll wait with you till your husband comes.”

I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.

I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn’t any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, “Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee.”

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, “Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again.” In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, “So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni?” (That was the way he always addressed me.) “Sir, I am leaving Telco.”

“Where are you going?” he asked. “Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I’m shifting to Pune.”

“Oh! And what will you do when you are successful.”

“Sir, I don’t know whether we will be successful.” “Never start with diffidence,” he advised me. “Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best.”

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, “It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he’s not alive to see you today.”

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn’t do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today’s engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.

(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband.)

Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th Birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004.

Work your passions

Work your passions..

Since now (may 2006) the centre of gravity concentrates on the anti reservation campaign…the medicos being battered…the Arjun Singh…the UPA…congress…yfe…and all in the related field, a blog other than this topic doesn’t sound appealing…yeah.. and it took a lot of reassurance for me to write down something other than this…the matter has occupied my gray matter (Brownish-gray nerve tissue, especially of the brain and spinal cord, composed of nerve cell bodies and their dendrites and some supportive tissue) for long now…all the blogs for now have similar contents focusing on the topic.. and a deviation away the momentum takes a lot….

So to begin with..

When I was a kid..a school going kid…I was confronted with one question may time..every time…anytime… from relatives, elders, all those acquainted with…

Bal, tu motha houn kaay karnaar?

Beta, bade hokay kya banoge?

Doctor ki engineer? ka sachin tendulkar…?

Well, even the Mcq’s for any competitive examination provides with 4 options to tinker on…but I was provided with three…

So lesser options means lesser confusion…rite???..but here I wud hv appreciated many more…

Well..many like me are confronted with the same questions and the same options everytime…and I really don’t know why the hell those kids (includes me..when I was one) are to be bombarded with the same question when they don’t even know the SSC and HSC….and even if they know they are not aware what these curriculum holds in store for them…

So the point is…most of the students appearing for 10^th have one aim…or atleast their parents have…

Somehow secure admission in a science stream.

Then the FYJC is fun…a no taxing..just relaxing…not for long though….SYJC approaches too fast for one’s liking…the classes..the college schedules…the expectations….

The student has to go thru a gruelling schedule( howz it pronounced frnds?..Skedule or Shedule???)…and then the questions forms a mirage of images in his cerebrum (part of brain associated with higher functions like emotions and reasoning)….engg or medical??? BSc doesn’t find a space in his options…or rather they are not accepted by the parents…anyways the point is..other options don’t even strike the thought process and even if they they are never appealing enough..

The choice is not too difficult for a child having Doctor parents…just get thru the entrance..and the doc parent wud get a mgmt seat if reqd….they do need a heir to continue the clinic estd by themselves… no questions of any options in this case…

The situation isn’t too easy for others though..they hv options and gotta choose frm it…and the descision is made finally… engg usually has got high number of takers…for the lesser course period…comparatively less grueling curriculum…more easy to get in…ATKT (very important point)….

Or else the others take up medical or para medical fields as per availability and feasibility….in accordance with the expectations of parents and peers….

The schedule for both the courses has its highs and lows…and the takers have to roll over them..some tumble some have a smooth ride and eventually they pass out…graduates… convocation day holds a spl importance…black robes seem filled with colours..colours of expectations..colours of joy…colours of a new unseen….enthusiasm..

So here it ends…or does it begins…?? By now the student..who has gone thru all this has a fair idea of what the market demands…how to implement the acquired skills…how to maximize gains..?? since another question they soon have to confront with is “per annum kitna hain?” (p.a.)..

All the gruels that he has been thru is gonna be measured, titrated against this p.a…

And he has to run …run again to satisfy this value..a higher p.a….

This p.a. stuff is nowadays used to rank the B-schools…higher the p.a. of its product..higher is its value…the faculty and the infrastructure is secondary to this p.a. stuff…

The entire concept or work for pleasure doesnt find any meaning in this viscious circle (circle in 2-dimensions, a sphere in 3-dimensions).. ..recently considered 4^th dimension; TIME doesn’t find my favour to mention in this context….

What I believe in is “integrate passion with career”

And those who manage to do so ofter have higher scales to measure their success…not merely in terms of p.a., but in higher terms..

They satiate their conscience..they thrive on their passions…

We usually spend 70% of our lifetime working (Thomas Jefferson has said so)…so why not have it of our own choice…why follow the cliché..platitude..???

Doing something which one is not really interested in always produces suboptimal results…

There are lot many avenues open…ljust try to find them…first of all identify ur passions…ur skills…then choose the boulevard to tread on…to blossom on..

I don’t know where this is heading…started it some how…but ending this one is a tuf task..just wud like to conclude a bit abruptly with…

“If u hate your work its ur master, if you love it , you are its master”